Alone in a Crowd of People (#10, Intro & Ch 1) (p3-28)

In the first chapter of "Hunger of Memory", Rodriguez shows his feelings when he was a child. It was hard for him to go to a public school because he spoke so little English and so he was not comfortable with it. For some reason his poor Latino family was surrounded by a lot of wealthy white people. Rodriguez shows how he only felt secure and happy when he was at home. He also felt good when he was speaking Spanish, it made his family different and helped him to feel like he was wanted and loved.
Prompt #10

I've never been living in a country where no one spoke my language; however I still can relate to the author's feeling. Rodriguez's parents were from Mexico, so as a young child he only knew Spanish. "At five years of age, I knew just enough English for my mother to trust me on errands to stores one block away. No more." (Rodriguez 13). When Rodriguez started going to school he felt isolated from everyone else. He called the white kids "los gringos". When he was at home speaking Spanish he felt like he belonged somewhere and was appreciated. When Rodriguez was out in the mainly white world he felt alone. I also saw how in The Motorcycle Diaries, Che called the white land owners in Chile gringos as well. This shows that they called these foreign people by this name. Rodriguez did not feel a part of these people, they were foreigners and he was alone in their world.

I feel like I can related to him because I was home schooled till 8th grade. I am shy to begin with, so never being in school with other people didn't help my problem. When I was first placed in a public school it was very overwhelming. I didn't know how to really communicated in front of all those strangers and had a difficult time adjusting at first. It was always nice to come home where I felt comfortable and relaxed. It took a long time to "learn the other kid's language" and sometimes I still don't feel comfortable with certain things. I felt alone in a wave of people, trying to hide from their voices and laughter.

"I am speaking with ease in Spanish. I am addressing you in words I never use with los gringos. I recognize you as someone special, close, like no one outside. You belong with us. In the family. " (Rodriguez 16). Rodriguez talks over and over again about how he felt welcome and special when he heard Spanish and how it was hard being around "los gringos". The way his parents struggled speaking English hurt him and he didn't always know how to deal with his feelings.


I have been around my friends Spanish speaking family and can relate to how frustrating it is when you can't communicate with anyone else. I think that people take for granted the fact that they can communicate with other people. It is very hard when you can't. I am also in Sign Language Club and once a year we do a day of silence. That is another eye opening experience...being with all these people and having no way to talk to them. It makes you feel isolated and is very frustrating. I can only imagine how hard it was for him to have no communication all the time.

Rodriguez's parents talked about how it was hard coming to the United States and how many Mexican immigrants were poor and suffered as they tried to make a new life or get enough money to send back to family in Mexico. Things like this are still going on today. Here is a link to an article about how immigrants are feeling the pain of our recession.

I also found this really neat article which shows the history of Mexican immigration to the U.S. through out history. I thought that the following quote "The first Mexicans to become part of the United States never crossed any border. Instead, the border crossed them." was very ironic because we are trying to push them out, but originally we forced some to become part of the U.S. It is interesting to look at things from other perspectives, a few pages in talks about different misconceptions that we have about these immigrants. It was really neat to learn about this.